BANGOR, Maine — One of two Texas men charged in connection with an alleged cocaine-running scheme that stretched from the Lone Star State to Canada through Maine pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court to a drug charge.

Five kilograms of cocaine is equivalent to about 11 pounds of the drug.

Charles has been held without bail since his arrest in October.

A sentencing date has not been set.

He was indicted in August along with Robert “The Border Guy” Rossignol, 60, of Van Buren and Apolinar “Polo” Ortiz-Islas, 42, of Houston. Rossignol pleaded guilty in March to the same drug conspiracy charge Charles admitted to and a second count of failure to report the importation to $10,000 or more and aiding and abetting the same. Ortiz-Islas has pleaded not guilty to the drug conspiracy charge. Both men are being held without bail.

Rossignol and the Texans were charged after one of the Canadians was seen by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement receiving nearly $300,000 in cash in a box from Rossignol in a Houlton parking lot on June 27, according to court documents.

A short time later, Hallett was stopped for speeding by Maine State Police, and a K-9 unit discovered $298,585 inside a box in the trunk, according to court documents.

LeBlanc and Hallett admitted receiving a large sum of money from Rossignol in Maine, then traveling to Texas. Once there, Hallett and LeBlanc met with Charles and exchanged the money for cocaine.

“Hallett would then transport the cocaine by car back to Northern Maine and turn it over to [Rossignol],” one document states. “[Rossignol] would then transport the cocaine into Canada where it would be picked up by Hallett or [LeBlanc] and transported to its final destination.”

On at least two occasions, Charles brought the cocaine to Maine himself, according to the prosecution version of events to which he pleaded guilty.

All five men charged in connection with the operation face a mandatory minimum of 10 years and maximum sentence of life in federal prison and a fine of up to $10 million on the drug charges.